If you need help or have suggestions, post here...
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To get rid of blurriness and lack of focus, first...

A) Insure that your pictures is in focus.
- Optional: Use a tripod if it is in focus but you're still getting blurry pics.
- You may want to steady your hand.

B) Use either Macro mode or Sports mode.
- Don't know where it is? Use the manual.
- Okay, too lazy? In that case, it should be on the wheel-button about 50% of the time, with the new touch-screen cameras, it varies a lot so READ the manual
- Macro mode will improve your focus up close, i.e. 6" away from subject.
- Sports mode increases shutter speed reducing the effect of a shaky hand as it "fires" faster. As always, the subject MUST BE IN FOCUS.

C) Make sure you have enough light before shooting. Otherwise, use the flash.
- Preferably, you should use natural light, but DO NOT have your subject directly in the sunlight, the best option would be next to window that is not in direct sunlight.
- If it is too dark, your camera's shutter speed will slow down making it near impossible to not have a bit of blurriness.
- If it is too dark, it'll also make your subject hard to see.
- Another option would be to use a bright lamp, don't worry about the pictures being yellow as you can fix that in Picasa.

D) Using a flash.
- I don't recommend relying on a flash unless you have a SLR, but if you do use one, make sure your subject is not over-lit.

These basic steps/rules apply to both point and shoot cameras and SLRs... questions?
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Or set your camera on some books, boxes anything flat really. Or take your pics using both hands, hold the camera as you normally would with your right hand, then set your left hand under the camera, after that try setting it close to your body, that should give any of you shaky-handed people clearer pics without a tripod.
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Does anyone have advice on taking pictures of black MOCs? I heard somewhere that taking them in front of a black background helps, but that always makes it too dark for my camera, even with two lamps and light from the window.
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Well first, I heard that lamps don't help anything. You need 100% natural sunlight from a window or take the picture outside.
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Sunlight is hard to come by where I live, but I'll do what I can. Thanks for the advice!
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No problem
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In the event it's too hard to get natural light, try positioning the lamp, so that it faces only the creation. You do not want to light up the background... otherwise your creation will look too dark... do you have one of those flexible lamps? Also what kind of camera are you using? If it's an SLR, you might be able to get away with it being too dark by placing it on a stand and editing it later...
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I know of many that use only lamp light in their MOCs, like Yuri Fassio, and Alex Eylar.
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I'm not sure what kind of camera it is; I didn't buy it. It's a fairly old digital camera though, and whenever it's too dark to take a picture, a little warning comes across the screen saying, "Low Light!" and then it doesn't focus properly. It's night mode is the only way I know how to slow down the shutter speed, but that doesn't have a closeup feature. However, I think I may have solved the issue; I tried a dark blue background, which, apparently, my camera tolerates. It's just dark enough to get some of the detail out of black MOCs while still being in closeup mode.
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Great! Have you tried using a stand?
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Yeah, I've done stacks of books and things, I'm hoping to get a mini tripod soon.
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Great!
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